By ANTONY MUTUNGA and David Wanjala Real estate has been a boom in Kenya for a while now, contributing 7.6% of the GDP. Investors have been bringing up buildings with the aim of satisfying the growing population that demands almost 250,000 housing units per year. However, with the prices of houses having gone up over the years, most people have turned away from high-end buildings to apartments. According to the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) Housing Price Index, in the fourth quarter of 2016, apartments accounted for 60% of total sales while Maisonettes and bungalows accounted for 23% and 17% respectively.…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
By Kosta Kioleoglou Over the last few years, Kenya’s economy has been growing with an impressing pace. At an average growth rate of over 5%, Kenya seems to be unstoppable. People think that there is only one way that the country can move towards, and that is forward. Real estate is considered as one of the main pillars supporting Kenya’s growth. Truth is that property market has been outperforming most of the other sectors of the economy. Unfortunately, growth rate alone is not enough as an economic measurement to prove real prosperity. Several other economic data are equally important as…
African Media Agency (AMA) Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a leading pan-African multilateral development finance institution and project developer, has issued a $500 million 7-year Eurobond. The senior unsecured Eurobond, which carries a coupon of 3.875% was priced to yield 4.000% and matures in April 2024. The Eurobond received strong global interest, with an order book of $2.4 billion, representing about five times over-subscription from 231 investors across the Middle East, Asia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. Prior to the launch of the bond, AFC conducted a road show in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE, and the…
By Jaafar S. Abdulkadir Corporate governance continues to be a relevant subject of discussion globally owing to the deregulation of markets, the rise of institutional investors and the continuing integration of world economies. There has never been stronger emphasis on promoting the collective interests of stakeholders, and not just the narrow interests of shareholders, than there is now. The economic and financial crisis that plagues the markets from time to time may be attributed to loose governance, which blurs the separation of roles between those who own the business entities and those who manage these entities. Good corporate governance helps…
By Victor Adar There has been a sharp decline on growth of banks after interest rates capping law took effect last year. But amidst the unfavourable business environment, KCB Group takes the top position as the most attractive bank pushing Equity from top to position three thanks to a strong franchise value and intrinsic value score as per latest Cytonn Investments banking report. The franchise score measures the broad and comprehensive business strength of the company and the intrinsic score measures the investor return potential. National Bank ranked lowest in both franchise and intrinsic value score. Themed Consolidation & resilience in a challenging…
BY FRANCIS MONYANGO It is no secret that technology has disrupted the media industry. In the past few years, media houses have downscaled operations, leading to many loss of jobs and have also changed their approach and joined the muddy battle for clicks. Every media house now has an online news blog even though the quality of news that they post leaves a lot to be desired. In this new age, media houses do not just compete amongst themselves but also against blogs for traffic. As they say, all is fair in love and war. In this war, a huge…
BY BARNABAS ONYONKA Very strange! The guy from Central Bank will tell you it is bad. The expert and the economist will tell you as a country, we are ‘walking on a slippery slope’. The politician will tell you if the trend continues ‘the country is headed for the dogs.’ The general consensus of the common mwananchi is that it is not good. All these opposing opinions but the President borrows anyway. Why so? You may ask. Well, I will tell you why. Public opinion is shaped by what the politicians are saying; politicians are merely echo aloud what the…
Nation Media Group (NMG) has shut down Nation Hela, its international money transfer unit launched five years ago to profit from the growing diaspora remittances from Kenyans living abroad. The service has been struggling to get the critical numbers needed to make it profitable since its launch in August 2012, with competition from international money services like MoneyGram, Western Union and mobile transfers finally pulverizing it. A circular from Diamond Trust Bank (DTB), the holding bank, to accountholders last week indicated that the Nation Hela card services will be discontinued on May 31 2017. The biggest beneficiary of this product failure…
Large scale datacentre investment opportunities are increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa as key commercial hubs benefit from the critical combination of high quality international backbone infrastructure (subsea cable) connectivity and mushrooming local demand for data, say investment leaders. Michael Tobin OBE, former chief executive of data center operator Telecity, who is a key speaker at the upcoming TMT Finance Africa 2017 event in London, said there is massive potential for data centre investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and conditions in three markets especially standout. “Clearly South Africa is the core environment,” said Tobin. “We’re just starting to see the big boys go…
There is a growing number of Kenyans who would go for an investment which attracts little amounts, then as trust develops, they top up all big amounts they want on either daily basis, weekly or every month. You could be on maternity leave and thinking of ways to generate passive income, or on a poorly paying day job that makes it tricky to get involved on something which can generate some income on the side. But now things are changing, so it seems, with most financial institutions turning to the long forgotten low–income lot with competitive investment products. Money managers…